Warren Zevon GENIUS: BEST OF WARREN ZEVON

Personnel includes: Warren Zevon (vocals, guitar, harmonica, electric piano, oragn, keyboards, percussion); Glen Frey, Don Henley, Phil Everly, Graham Nash, Neil Young, JD Souther, Linda Ronstadt, Lindsey Bukingham, Jackson Browne (vocals); Waddy Wachtel (guitar, background vocals); David Linley (steel guitar); Peter Buck (guitar); Charlie Bishharat, Joel Derouin (violin); Evan Wilson (viola); Larry Corbett (cello); Jim Horn (saxophone); John McVie, Mike Mills, Larry Klein, Jorge Calderon (bass); Mick Fleetwood, Anton Fig, Bill Berry (drums).
Producers include: Warren Zevon, Jackson Browne, Waddy Wachtel, Greg Ladanyi, Andrew Slater.
Compilation producer: Warren Zevon, Gary Peterson.
Includes liner notes by Will Self.
To paraphrase the old saw, if Warren Zevon did not exist it would have been necessary to invent him. At a time when his L.A. singer-songwriter peers were bleeding all over their shirtsleeves with mawkish, sensitive balladry, Zevon turned the 1970s troubadour approach on its ear with a twisted lyrical sensibility that embraced danger, ribaldry, and general mayhem. A more concise summary than the two-disc collection I'LL SLEEP WHEN I'M DEAD, GENIUS is an excellent thumbnail sketch of Zevon's iconoclastic work.
The early years are well represented by the oddly poignant junkie's lament "Carmelita," the horror-of-war ghost story "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner," and of course, such misanthropic staples as "Excitable Boy" and "Werewolves of London." GENIUS stands to show, however, that the '70s weren't the end of Zevon's story. Zevon is backed by R.E.M. on the trenchant boxing tale "Boom Boom Mancini" and admirably covers Prince's "Raspberry Beret." He humorously sums up his life as a rogue on "Mr. Bad Example," and touchingly enough for a cancer victim, sounds unassailably resilient on "I Was in the House When the House Burned Down." GENIUS serves Zevon's legacy well, and helps ensure that he won't be forgotten.

• Format: CD
• Genre: Pop